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Saturday, May 4, 2013

update on the horse with the swollen eye

When this horse first came to us, we were told that the horse possibly had upper eyelid cancer.

The first few days she was here, she had a heavy and thick yellow discharge draining from her eye like it was infected. I did some research on it. I began to wonder if it wasn't an out of control fungal infection. The information I read on it, stated fungal infections take at least 35 days to clear up using a topical ointment.
We took her to the vets. The vet said she had to have her eye removed so it would give her a year to year and a half quality life. While we were campaigning for donations to have the surgery done, the vet gave me some topical (antibacterial/antifungal) ointment to use. The vet had major doubts it would work but it didn't hurt to try.
The following day after I applied the ointment, her lower eye lids swelling was reduced drastically. That evening, the swelling was back. I started applying the ointment like I had done the first day. I have noticed a slow reduction in the swelling in both upper and lower lids since. Last night, the lids were no longer fused together. I could see her eye clearly. It is opaque. Whether she can see light and shadows is unclear at this time but she is considered blind in that eye according to medical standards. She is able to move both her upper and lower lids slightly at this time. The movement will possibly increase as the swelling goes down even more.
She will still have to have her eye removed, unfortunately. There is a strange phenomenon called sympathy. (When one eye goes bad, the other will generally follow.) And so in order to save the sight in the good eye, the bad eye will have to be removed.
We still need donations for her surgery. Paypal: galloping_angels@ymail.com